1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a self-loading and compacting refuse carrier and, in particular, to a compactor vehicle which can be loaded from the side.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A variety of specially designed vehicles for tansporting refuse have been known for many years. These usually include some form of closed refuse-receiving compartment and an automatic refuse-loading and compacting assembly. Typically this loading and compacting assembly forms a tailgate at the rear of the vehicle and may be hinged at an upper point of the body so that the assembly may be rotated out of the way by hydraulic cylinders when the vehicle is to be emptied. The assembly also includes a refuse-receiving bucket together with an arm and scraper to force the material from the bucket into the vehicle compartment. This loading and compacting assembly is large, complex and extremely heavy. The result is that the heaviest part of the load is the vehicle itself and, because of the very heavy structure at the rear of the vehicle, a very heavy-duty vehicle must be used which is expensive not only in terms of initial purchase, but continues to be expensive in terms of maintenance and fuel.
Recently a number of relatively light-weight refuse vehicles have been appearing on the market which are normally operated by one or two men. These are designed for use with a relatively light-weight vehicle chassis and have been designed to provide only a minimum of compaction. One such vehicle is described in Canadian Pat. No. 890,260, issued Jan. 11, 1972. It will be noted that the patent shows a side loading bucket and this is certainly desirable for small crews since, with a one-man crew the driver can stop directly beside the refuse, step out of his cab, throw the refuse into the bucket and get back into the cab without having to go back and forth to the rear of the vehicle. This represents a great saving in time and effort.
However, the great disadvantage of the loader shown in the above patent is that as can be seen from FIG. 4, the bucket projects out from the side of the vehicle a considerable distance at a quite low elevation. Unless the driver is careful to retract the bucket at all times while he is moving along a street, there is a great danger of another vehicle running into the bucket and, therefore, it may present a very serious hazard.
Other side loading vehicles have recently appeared on the market which avoid the hazard of the bucket swinging out to the side by having a refuse-receiving door in the side of the vehicle compartment. However, these have been rather unsatisfactory vehicles because of very small receiving section for refuse, making the actual procedure of dumping refuse containers into the vehicle very awkward.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a refuse carrier which can overcome the above problems by providing a vehicle which combines four very desirable features, namely light-weight, side laoding, spacious loadind compartment and effective compaction.